Sunday, June 15, 2008

It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)

"Prosody is the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech. Prosody may reflect the emotional state of a speaker; whether an utterance is a statement, a question, or a command; whether the speaker is being ironic or sarcastic; emphasis, contrast and focus; and other elements of language which may not be encoded by grammar." ~ Wikipedia



How we express the printed word makes all the difference in making abstractions come to life. That's where the art of prosody comes in. Do we put enough emphasis on prosody in our schools?

Wikipedia: Prosody
Prosody on the Web
Prosody Guide
Listen to Prosody Online

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Slam poetry is a way to teach this. Older kids seem to like it as a poetry update and delivery is really stressed as a skill.

Jim Burke said...

Thanks, Nicole. You have introduced a new term and performance option to this old geezer! :) To me, performance/presentation/sharing make all the difference in creating learning motivation. During my 32 years of classroom teacher, I found that it was incredibly important to have kids share and reflect upon their work . . . with an audience beyond just their teacher. Writing only passed into the teacher, corrected, and passed back leaves much to be desired. There needs to be an audience . . . which helps put the teacher in the role of a coach, a person who is there to help make it the best that it can be and not just a messenger of corrections on a paper that no one else will get to see or hear about.

Thanks, again,

jim